Cycle question can it be true?

[bavass]

I am on day 11 my Ammonia spiked at 2ppm+ and Nitrites have spiked at 5ppm+ last week. On Thursday before leaving town I did an Ammonia test it was zero, Nitrites were about 2ppm I added a second handful of Freeze Dried Krill. When I returned on Sunday Ammonia was back to zero and nitrites were at .25ppm. Tonight I get home and Ammonia is zero and Nitrites are zero. PO4 is at 12ppb on Hanna 736 .03ppm and NO3 is about 5ppm. I used all dry rock no live no live sand. I did add Brightwells MB7 daily. Can my tank really have cycled in 11 days?

 

[Phranque]

Absolutely.... mine did it in 12, without any additives like MB7. I used Real Reef, which is manufactured rock, and had never been live.

 

[bavass]

Just hard for me to believe. My first tank took 6-8 weeks! I am going to add more Krill and give it a few days, probably will go ahead and start getting ready for a big water change this weekend. After the water change I will cut lights on and start getting the temp balanced with lights on give that time to start building a little algae then add a few snails and hermits to get sand bed ready for fish. Then I will bring calcium and alk to what I want and start balancing the tank out.

 

[Phranque]

Trust me, I couldn't believe it either...... I'd never had a tank cycle that fast. I did the raw shrimp method, left it in for a few more days just to be sure, and saw nothing but nitrates rising.....

 

[Beengirl]

It can happen. My 2nd tank cycled in 11 days because I used some rock and filter media from my reef. Congrats!! Time for PWC and fish!! Yay!!

 

[bavass]

I knew the MB7 was good stuff from when i was vinegar dosing didnt think it would help cycle a tank that quick

 

[bavass]

Ok so here are all my results.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
PO4 .049ppm
NO3 2ppm
Magnesium 1200pm raising it to 1320ppm
Calcium 430
Alkalinity 8.5
Salinity 35ppt
PH 8.0
Temp 78

 

[Ingy]

That's the problem I have with bottled bacteria. Your nitrates are only 2 ppm AFTER a cycle. That shows you don't have much bacteria on your rocks.

 

[bavass]

Did a huge water change last night NO3 was over 5ppm

 

[Ingy]

Ha! 5 ain't very high for a cycle either.

 

[Beengirl]

An ammonia spike of 2 isn't ideal, but it's better than some I've seen listed on this site. I would just take it extremely slow when adding fish. 1 at a time and 2-3 weeks apart to allow more BB to build up.

 

[bavass]

I wont be adding fish for weeks yet. I will be adding a few snails and hermits to prep the sand bed then will be adding fish after QT for a fee weeks. I have added an ammonia source (shrimp) on 2 separate occasions over the last week and ammonia will not rise anymore than zero i tested after at 2, 6, 12, and 24 hours after introducing it

 

[bavass]

ammonia and nitrites are still zero few hermits are working hard